


Home Again

by Phanfictionhoe



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Also the only reason this is Dan/Original Female character is because he was dating someone before, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Angsty Dan Howell, But they are broken up when the fic starts she's just shown in flashbacks, Cheating, Confused Dan, Eventual Smut, Getting Together, Happy Ending, He'll be fine guys, I can't do a sad ending, I'm Too Weak For That, M/M, More like flashbacks to cheating, Parent Phil, Sexuality Crisis, Slight Family Angst, Strangers to Lovers, a whole lotta flashbacks, not dan or phil, poor baby, sorry - Freeform, too many tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2018-12-29 22:18:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12094647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phanfictionhoe/pseuds/Phanfictionhoe
Summary: After living in America for six years, Dan Howell returns to London with no idea what to do with the rest of his life. However everything seems to come together when his adopted sister lets him live with her and gets him a job at her restaurant, where he meets a certain blue eyed man and his son...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This idea just popped into my head mainly because I wanted to do a parent Phil fic, and then it just sort of blossomed from here. I also wanted to try out writing some of my own characters, and was like this would be the perfect place for that. So anyway I hope you like it, there are some references to cheating (and probably in most of the chapters, but its not Dan or Phil that's doing the cheating so don't worry, I legit want to cry my eyes out everytime I read a fic like that) in this chapter if that bothers you. So you have been warned.

He couldn't believe this was happening. 

Here he was on a plane back home after  _six years._  

"Are you ok sir?" The flight attendant asked him with a worried expression on her face. He could practically feel her pity and slight annoyance at him for disturbing the other passengers. But then again who could blame her, he was a twenty six year old man crying loudly into his pillow in the middle of a crowded plane.

Clearing his throat and wiping his tears with his sleeve he responds, "Yes, sorry... um the movie is really sad." He cringed as the movie displayed on his little screen was not a sad one, rather a comedy for little kids.

She gives him one last pitying look before she turns away, going to assist to other passengers. 

"You ok buddy?" spoke the man beside him, who had been sleeping for nearly the entire flight, only just now waking. He had his dark eyebrows raised in question and seemed to be waiting for Dan to answer.

The man was older, most likely in his late forties early fifties, thin with dark black hair with greying edges and eyes to match. His face was partially obscured by the thick beard on his chin, but despite this his smile was still visible. It was such a kind smile, it made Dan feel even worse.

He sighed before once again wiping his face and turning to the man, "I just broke up with my girlfriend of six years." He decided to just tell the man, it's not like he'd ever see him again.

"Awe that's rough bud, is that why you're on this flight? Going home?" He asked smiling sympathetically.

"Ha, yeah I guess." Dan laughed bitterly, as he knew he had nowhere to go, no home to go back to. Nowhere he was wanted at least.

"Well I hope it works out my friend." He replied, putting in his earbuds, either not sensing Dan's bitterness or not wanting to be impolite by prying in on a stranger's life.

Dan kind of wished he would have asked. Then maybe he would have someone to talk to about all this. Though just thinking about the whole situation made him want to throw up. Which was exactly what he felt like when it all went down.

_Dan was trying to hold three bags full of groceries while also trying to unlock the front door. He then made his way into the kitchen to put things away. The house was really quiet. It normally wasn't this quiet around this time of day. Usually Sarah was in the living room playing with their dog, Cupcake, or making a mess by attempting to bake in the kitchen._

_But no it was quiet. Dan looked at the time and realized he was home early today, that makes sense. Usually Dan would get home from his job at the local computer store around 6. It was more like 5 today as he had worked overtime last week._

_'She's probably working on her book.' Dan thought to himself after putting away the groceries. He made his way up the stairs to their room._

_Hearing a strange noise he stops for a moment, but shakes his head thinking it was a figment of his imagination._

_But once he opened the door he knew it wasn't._

_There she was, he smiled when he saw her face. That was until he noticed the look of passion on it._

_That was when he noticed the man who was in bed with her, he was the one putting that look on her face. Giving her all that pleasure._

_Not Dan, not her boyfriend of six years. Not the guy who had given up his whole life for her, his entire family for her._

_He had practically orphaned himself once again, his parents disowning him, all for her._

_The tears blinded his eyes, but he saw her, she was looking at him, right in his eyes._

_And then he ran._

"Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking, we will be landing at London City Airport in a few moments..." Dan put his seatbelt on and prepared to land. 

Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes, now he had to worry about supporting himself once again. He hadn't felt like this since he was 21 and him and Sarah were just barely scraping by. 

"Were here my friend." Dan's eyes snapped open as he looked over at the man who was still sitting next to him, then took in his almost empty surroundings as most other passangers had already gotten off the plane.

"Right, sorry." Dan said quickly unbuckling and standing up to get out of the man's way.

He just clapped Dan on the shoulder, "You'll be ok, I can feel it."

Dan couldn't feel it though. That's all he could think about, as he was sat at the bar nursing some cheap drink that tasted like piss, in the first place he saw that served alcohol.

'How in the hell can I be ok when I don't even have a place to sleep.' he thought to himself, raising the disgusting drink to his lips once again.

"You need a place to stay?" Dan started, looking over to the now occupied seat next to him, who was filled by a young looking red haired woman. 

He then realized that he had said that out loud, judging by not only her question but the look on her face.

"Oh, uh... it's fine... I mean i'm fine." He turned back to his drink, not wanting to bother anyone with his problems.

"Well you don't really seem fine. I'm Anna." She threw out her hand for him to shake, a big smile resting on her face.

Despite wanting the conversation to end he lightly shook her hand anyway, "Dan." he mumbled.

"Nice to meet you Dan, now let's talk pricing, what's your range?" She asked, her head tilting to the side in questioning.

"...What?" He responded shocked, not even expecting to start the conversation, now they were talking about rent prices? He was so confused about how this happened.

Not to long ago he remembers doing this with Sarah, when they were tired of living in crappy motel rooms, and had finally saved up enough money for an apartment.

_"Ooh, this one's nice." He said pointing to the two bedroom apartment that was currently on the computer screen at the local library. At this point they couldn't afford to have laptops, they were trying to save up for their apartment and hopefully one day a car._

_"Hell no, did you even look at the price?" She whisper yelled, to which the librarian didn't appreciate as this was the third dirty look she had given them in the last twenty minutes for their outbursts._

_"Well we do both have two jobs, I can take more shifts at the gas station if you want." He said detrimentally, wanting to sound like he actually looked at the price before picking the place._

_"Darling no, we already don't see each other enough, I mean seriously I had to take up extra shifts at the pet store already, do you really want to see each other even less?" She rubbed her hand across her forehead out of feelings of anxiety._

_"Hey," He grabbed both of her hands in his own, "We'll be ok, now look at this one."_

_She smiled at him, "It's perfect."_

"Oh, I don't really think I can afford anything," He shook his head in disappointment, "Hell, I don't even think I can afford this shitty ass drink." The bartender scowled turning his head towards him, causing his eyes to widen and his cheeks to flush in embarrassment.

"Well do I have a deal for you," Anne spoke triumphantly, like she had finally found what she was looking for. Dan wondered if she was hitting on him, but then shook his head at his ridiculous thought, he looked like crap right now, who and the hell would flirt with him.

He looked at his reflection in one of the glass bottles displayed on the shelf in front of him. God he really did look like crap. His eyes were heavily lidded from all the crying he had been doing, his hair was disheveled, and not in the sexy way, and he was starting to get a bit of a five O'clock shadow. That in itself was quite strange as he hardly ever grew facial hair, still going through puberty as he always liked to joke, though now that he thought about it he hadn't gotten to shave in nearly a week.

Wow it had been a week. A week since he ran out, not even grabbing a jacket, into the cold evening air. Not even looking back. She hadn't even tried to contact him. He wasn't sure if it was out of shame at what she had done. Or maybe she just didn't want to speak with him, maybe she was done with him, maybe she had been for a while.

"...So, what do ya think?" He hadn't realized she had continued speaking.

"Oh, sorry, I wasn't listening." He spoke honestly, having nothing to lose.

However she didn't seem to mind as she began to repeat what she had said, "I have a friend, who not only needs someone to stay in the top room of her restaurant, the old guy who used to live there just kicked the bucket, very sad I know." She spoke so quickly Dan was sure that she was just a figment of his imagination he came up with in his intoxicated state, in order to give him some sort of hope.

"But that's not even the best part, since you don't have any money, I presume you don't have a job am I right?" She cocked her head towards him.

"Yeah." He responded shortly, honestly curious where his hallucination was going with this.

"Well, she also needs a new waiter!" She yelled, smiling and throwing her arms out in excitement. In the process knocking over his drink, breaking the glass. Once again alerting the angry bartender.

"Ah don't worry, I'll buy you a new one if you say yes." She spoke in a pleading voice.

"Yeah, ok."

What's the harm, I'm not gonna remember this tomorrow, and besides he wanted to at least pretend to be happy for a minute before he had to go out into the real world and face the fact that he was homeless, jobless, and girlfriendless.


	2. Chapter 2

 

_Dan was freaking out. It was his own fault, he knew. Who in the hell would think it would be a good idea to spend the entire summer doing nothing, all the while knowing you had a project due the day you get back to school. Dan, that's who._

_But here he was. The night before the first day of his last year of college, scrambling to throw together a book report that was at least worthy of a C._

_"Oh god, why in the hell am I such an idiot." Dan mumbled to himself, searching through the aisles of books trying to find something that looks at least a bit interesting (and short, but not short enough that it looked like he did this last minute. Even if he did)._

_"I'm sure that's not true." Came a voice from behind Dan, causing him to drop the book he was holding and let out a shriek that may have been just a bit too loud (and girly) for the library._

_The voice came from a girl as it turns out, she let out a giggle at his reaction then spoke again, "It's a good thing I'm working tonight, if it were Shelia, you'd be in big trouble cutie."_

_Dan blushed and turned to pick up the book he had dropped, blushing even more as he saw the title._

_"Wow, Fifty Shades Of Grey. Do you want me to check that out for ya?" The girl said, trying to keep in her laughter._

_"Oh, uh no." Dan said, quickly putting the book back on the shelf, "Actually, maybe you can help me."_

_"Woah, we just met." She joked, causing Dan to roll his eyes and let out a chuckle._

_"Very funny, but since you work here, I was wondering if you could help me find a book for a book report?" Dan asked, almost pleading._

_"Ha, funny most people came in like two months ago asking for a book for a book report." She smirked._

_"Uh, well. Shit. Ok to be honest I put the whole thing off until today and school starts tomorrow, please help me. I'll pay you, I have... 6 bucks." Dan said, close to tears from the stress of the situation._

_"Hey, it's fine. You don't need to pay me, I'm happy to help." she smiled, "Hell, i'll even help you write the report."_

_"God I love you."Dan let out, sighing in relief._

_"Woah, I don't even know your name yet." She said, with a flirty glint in her eye._

_Dan smiled, showing off his dimples,"Hi, my name is Dan." He put out a hand for her to shake._

_"I'm Sara."_

Dan awoke with a start, falling off the sofa.

Wait, why was he on a sofa? Wasn't he homeless? "Oh god where the hell am I." He wondered aloud.

"You were a bit too drunk, so I decided to let you sleep on my couch before sending you to my friend. I don't think she'd appreciate her new tenant/employee showing up drunk." Came a voice from above Dan.

He raised his head and saw the girl from last night. _Anne, was it?  Wait, Shit that was real?_ Dan thought, shaking his head and sitting back up on the sofa.

"Are you ok?" Anne asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I be? I didn't fall that hard." Dan questioned, scrunching up his brows out of confusion.

"Oh. It's just that... you were crying..." She blushed, stepping back and scratching the back of her head.

Dan reached up to touch his face. Oh, he was crying. Why? He must have been crying in his sleep. What had be been dreaming about?

"I'm fine, that happens sometimes..."Dan told the girl. And it wasn't a lie. Even before he and Sara had broken up, some nights he would just wake up crying, never remembering the dream that caused it. Though since the breakup it had been happening more often.

"Ok, if you're sure?" Anne questioned with a tilt of her head, to which Dan shook his head yes, "Now you should really shower, no offence but you smell rank my friend."

Dan raised his arm to smell himself, and god was she right. When was the last time he had showered? Or even brushed his hair or teeth?

Anne giggled, "The bathrooms over there,the first door,"She pointed down the hallway, "Oh, and I left you something to wear too, I hope it all fits. It's my boyfriends, Zack, you look to be about the same height, so it should work."Anne rambled on, more to herself than to Dan at the end.

Dan quickly got up and made his way to the bathroom.

After showering Dan looked in the mirror, and yep he was right. He looked like shit. 

His usually youthful face seemed to have aged about ten years. He had bags under his eyes. And not the "I decided to stay up all night playing Halo instead of sleeping" type of bags. The type of bags that made him seem sick.

Then again Dan supposed he was sort of sick. Though not physically, but mentally. This was the first night he had gotten any sleep since he left. And it had been because he had passed out drunk on someone he barely knows couch.

Though that's not all that Dan noticed while looking in the mirror. He noticed how dull almost lifeless his eyes had become. Before he had eyes that would light up a room, at least that's what Sara told him.

Then again how could he believe her after this. Maybe his eyes had been this boring, dull, muddy brown color this whole time. Maybe the "light" had been the thing blinding him from the truth, maybe it was how much he worshiped her. He would have done anything for her.

Hell he had. He up and left his family. His schooling. His entire life, just for her. 

Dan slammed his fist down on the counter in frustration. God why did he have to feel this way. Why couldn't he just forget all of this. Sara seems to have.

She must have forgot about him a long time ago.

Dan heard a knock at the bathroom door,"Everything ok? I heard a noise? Did you fall? Do I have to call the fire brigade?" 

Dan chuckled at how flustered she sounded.

"I'm fine, i'll be out in a few." Dan yelled through the door.

"Well you better be, you have work in about..."She paused, checking the time,"15 minutes."

"WHAT?" Dan screeched, "I can't be ready in 15 minutes, I look like shit!"

"Well, technically you have to be there in 15, you have to be ready in like 7 to get there on time."

Dan screeched again, this time rushing to get ready. Pulling on the clothes Anne had left out, they did fit, mostly.

They were a bit loose. They probably would have fit like a glove a few weeks ago, but Dan hadn't eaten much in the last few days.

Running his fingers through his hair like a makeshift comb, Dan took one last look in the mirror.

_It's as good as it's gonna get_ , Dan thought.

He opened the bathroom door, and made his way into the kitchen where Anne was.

"Oh good you're out, you took _forever,_ " She joked,"Here, eat, you need it." She slid him a plate with waffles and eggs.

Dan didn't waste a second, taking his fork and hacking at his food, scarfing it down in mere minutes.

“Okie dokey, well you better be going” Anne smiled at Dan, pushing him towards the door. “Don’t wanna be late!”

”Wait, I don’t know where the hell im going” Dan stopped her from pushing him out the door.

”Oh, I’ll take you!” Anne grinned at him, pulling away and grabbing her purse, “Let’s go!”

They decided (Anne decided, Dan just went along with it) to walk, since apparently the restaurant was only a couple blocks away  

As they walked up to the small brick building, Dan felt calm, almost like he was at home.

Ironic, he thought, as he currently didn’t have a home.

”Ok, here we are, The Jewl. Nice, isn’t it? Well anyway I gotta go, but when you get in there ask for Bridgett. She’s the boss.” Anne patted him on the shoulder and turned to walk away,”Oh, and good luck.”

Dan sighed,”Thanks.” He turned to speak to her, but she had already walked away.

”Well, here goes nothing” Dan said, pulling the door open and walking inside.

Dan had to take a double take as soon as he walked in. It was almost beautiful. Well at least it was obvious it used to be. But now it looked sort of run down.

The entrance had a big mahogany counter in the center, presumably for the host to greet people. However the desk was warped and stained.

As you looked behind it you saw rows of tables and booths, all made from the same wood as the counter. They were in the same shape as well. 

Some tables were missing chairs even. There were hanging lights above every table, but more than half didn’t appear to be working.

And there was also no one there.

Wow, no wonder this place needs workers, Dan thought, there’s no one working here. 

Just as he had that thought he heard yelling, from what was probably the kitchen. 

He didn’t want to be nosy. But since he was going to be working here, he supposed be could pry a bit. 

As he made his way to the kitchens, he heard what the yelling was about. 

“God, how the hell did you get this place?  You don’t even know how to run a business!” A deep voiced man yelled. 

“Yeah, I mean really, no one is ever here. And I mean EVER.” This time the voice came from a shrill sounding woman. 

“Like really, Bridge, I love you I do. But hun, this place looks like crap.” Came The voice of a young woman.

”Hey i’m Trying my best guys, you know Lindsey was much better at this than me. I’m much better with the money, she was the decorator.”

Lindsey? Bridgett? Oh god Dan felt sick. 

“Give up, your sister isn’t coming back. Maybe if you would spend a little bit of that money, this place could get decorated!” The same voice from before yelled. 

“God, this is supposed to be a grown up establishment. And you just let the busboys kid run around all Willy nilly. He keeps marking up the tables.”

”Hey, don’t bring me and Chris into this. And anyway he’s six years old, and I can’t afford daycare. What do you expect me to do?” The voice sounded much younger than the first two, a man this time. 

“Guys, guys what do you think I’m doing.  I agreed to hire this new guy only because Anne recommended him. She says he’s the best, and I won’t have to pay him much cause he’ll be paying rent for the place upstairs!” Said Bridgett.

if it was who Dan thought it was, she hadn’t changed a bit. 

“Maybe I can still turn back” Dan whispered to himself,” Yeah, i’ll Find another stranger to find me a job and place to live in the middle of London.” 

“Hey is there someone out there?” A voice came from the kitchen.

”Oh my god, customers?” 

“It’s probably the new guy”

”Oh god no one greated him and it’s his first day? Great impression guys.”

”Well instead of talking about greeting him, how about we go do it!”

Dan stepped back, a bit frightened, as a perky looking woman with brown curly hair cake bursting out of the kitchen.

”Hello, my name is Taylor, you must be the new guy, uh....”

”Dan, I’m Dan.” Dan said scratching behind his ear.

”Well, nice to meet you Dan. I’m the hostess.” She said grabbing her suspenders and grinning ear to ear at him.

”Cool.” Dan said, awkward as ever.

”Oh, let me introduce you to the gang,” she said pulling him into the kitchen,” this is David, the head chef he’s very good.”

”Oh, dear you flatter me. But she’s right, I am the best there is, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” David spoke.

”This is Claudia, she’s a waitress. Currently the only one we have, but hey we have you now!” Claudia pulled him into a hug.

”You’re such a tall boy, you must get all the ladies.” Dan laughed awkwardly in response, though he did feel a pain in his chest.

”This is Phil, he’s the busboy, and his son Christopher.” She said pointing to the pair.

Phil was in the middle of trying to get the child to let go of David’s leg, but turned to smile at Dan, before turning back to the problem at hand.

Speaking of the problem at hand, Dan was right.

“And last but not least, Bridgett, our lovely boss.” 

Bridgett had not taken her eyes off of Dan since he had walked in, seeming to realize the same thing he had.

”...Dan?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is gonna be a love story between Dan and Phil, I promise.


End file.
